Some Nationals are disgruntled the Albanese government’s electoral bill will deliver more money to party head offices, but Labor is still hoping to pass spending and donation caps with opposition support.
On Monday Labor shut down a bid by the independent MP Kate Chaney to send its proposed reforms to an inquiry, as crossbench fury over the bill grew.
Chaney told the house the major parties were “relying on the increasing disengagement of the public” to pass the bill without scrutiny.
But the fate of the electoral reform and electoral communications bills, introduced in the House of Representatives on Monday, will hinge on the Coalition, from which Labor believes it has in-principle support.
On Monday at a meeting of the junior Coalition partner, the Nationals, Senator Matt Canavan queried the reforms.
Canavan later equivocated, telling ABC TV he had not seen evidence that political donations influence party policy, but the way to “minimise that concern is to have the funding made in a public fashion”.
“We do need to run campaigns and I also think there’s an issue with large donors coming into the system which distort democratic process.
“It’s just about finding a balance here – the cap shouldn’t be too low to deny new entrants, deny others participating in the democratic process, but there probably needs to be some restraint on unlimited amounts of money.”
Another parliamentarian, who insisted on anonymity to speak frankly about internal deliberations, told Guardian Australia they were concerned the reforms would “further centralise” campaigns.
The reforms raise the public funding of elections to $5 per vote and grant administrative funding of $30,000 per MP and $15,000 per senator to party head offices to deal with more onerous disclosure requirements.
The parliamentarian argued these measures would be “worse” for MPs and senators who would be “hamstrung” by caps that make it harder to raise local funds for local campaigns, with centralised funds used as “another management tool” for enforcing party discipline.
“I don’t want more nodding monkeys controlled out of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.”
The shadow finance minister, Liberal senator Jane Hume, remained tight-lipped about the package, although the crossbench treated the Coalition’s decision not to support its push for an inquiry as further evidence of a major party deal.
“The legislation has only been introduced today,” a spokesperson for Hume said. “As usual, it will go through our party room processes and we will determine our position after that.”
Independents and minor parties have queried why the legislation, which will not take effect until July 2026 after the 2025 election, must pass this fortnight.
Chaney attempted to send the reforms to an inquiry to report by 3 March, but the motion was defeated 50 votes to 14, with the crossbench united but Coalition MPs abstaining.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, told the lower house that if the legislation “is as good as the government says it is, then they will have nothing to hide from an inquiry”.
Chaney told the house the major parties were leaning on “the complexity of this bill, the crowded media space” to “[rush] it through to get away with the only path they’ve got left to arrest the trend of declining support for the sclerotic leadership the two parties offer to the public”.
In a show of force 11 MPs and senators, including senator David Pocock and seven teal MPs whose campaigns raised more than the $800,000 proposed cap for an electorate-level campaign, fronted the media to oppose the bill.
“We will not be hoodwinked by this blatant attempt to lock out political competition,” Chaney told reporters.
If the reforms pass, the major parties could reap an estimated additional $82.7m in higher public funding and $16.5m in administrative funding if they maintain their vote share from the 2022 election at the 2028 poll, according to an analysis by funding aggregator Climate 200.
The independent senator Jacqui Lambie said major parties “have their snouts in the trough so far that they’re blowing that many bubbles I could jump in and have a bubble bath”.
“There is nothing I can think of worse, towards the end of the year, the end of sittings, and all the major parties are worried about is money and trying to maintain their seats.
“Here’s a good idea: why don’t you go and do what we all have to do – go earn [votes], instead of buying them.”
The independent MP Andrew Wilkie labelled the major parties “self-serving political dinosaurs”.
Earlier, the assistant minister to the prime minister, Pat Gorman, told the house the bills would “remove the influence of big money in politics, ensuring that our electoral system remains a system we can all trust”.
“Trust that election results are not unfairly skewed by big money. Trust that elections are a contest of ideas, not bank balances.
“Trust that we know who is funding election campaigns with more information about campaign financing provided before voting day.”
